(WATCH) Minecraft Named GameCity Prize Winner

There's no complicated face recognition, no oozing gore and a distinct lack of buxom female shooters. Instead, the game that has taken out the first GameCity Prize, Minecraft, is an independently-developed, pixelated, old-school building game that's still in beta.

Markus “Notch” Persson, Minecraft developer said: "We’re very excited to have won the first GameCity Prize, especially since the nominees contain some of our favourite games recently. It’s a great honour to be compared to those games. Winning this award helps motivate us to try to make Minecraft the best game it can be."

Jude Kelly OBE, Artistic Director of the Southbank and chair of the jury said: "Minecraft is the ultimate zeitgeist game that appeals on so many levels. The creative possibilities of this ever-expanding game are limited only by ones imagination."

The award-winning game, announced in Nottingham on Sunday, has 15 million registered users, has sold nearly 4 million copies and has 800,000 videos devoted to it on YouTube.

Also shortlisted for the prize were LIMBO, Portal 2, Child of Eden, ilomilo, Superbrothers: S&S EP and Pokémon Black. You can watch them all here.

The prize was judged on "their accomplishments and contribution to popular culture". Which game do you think should have won?

1

of

8

GameCity Prize winner - Minecraft

Check out this fan-made trailer of Minecraft, it's better than the real deal.